To think those who complain about online parents' evenings ...

[dinaminion]

... because they want to "get to know" the teachers, and don't like being cut off after their 5 minutes, are probably the same people who made face-to-face parents' evenings a nightmare for the rest of us, by hogging the teachers' attention, and over-running on their appointment slot, so everyone else was seen late, and the poor teachers were run ragged?

Long live the online parents' evening!

Really hope they stick with online. That said one teacher got Dd mixed up with another child and was effusive at her amazing textiles skills. When it ended Dd admitted she was talking about the girl she sat next to who was really talented at textiles Dd ahem is not 😁

I get a phone call, I prefer it in a lot of ways as it's less rushing about from work / leaving work early. Plus I hate crowds etc.

No. What a presumption. I don't do that. But I'd prefer to meet in person. That is the norm you know. Post covid we should be getting back to that.

I'm team face to face firmly for primary. And no, it's not a social opportunity with the teachers - I know them well enough! It's being able to see the star writer work on the wall that DD2 is incredibly proud of, and having DD1 get the chance to point out her artwork on the classroom door... and it's things like school having the ability to have the CAMHS early support team running a drop-in and picking up a lot of low-level issues that parents might not have raised this early on if they had to book a specific slot to see her.

I've found that if you have an approachable school as a general rule you get far less of one parent overrunning - it's when issues have been allowed to fester and not be addressed that things get lengthy. We did find with our previous school that the class teacher very much used the timed online ones as a way to try to dodge any actual discussion about the fact our child's SEN had been utterly ignored for an entire year - invited us into the room, ran straight into her little script then booted us out without any right to reply. Online was a fucking gift to that particular nightmare teacher!

We’re back to face to face at our school.

I did get more from the meeting in all honesty and I felt like the teacher and I both understood what each other was trying to say better and it was lovely to look through DC’s school work as we chatted… BUT, it was also quite difficult arranging childcare. The online one last year DH joined remotely from work and I could just leave the DC in front of the TV for 5 minutes, whereas this time it was just me and I needed to call on favours from friends. So very much six of one, half a dozen of the other for me.

Face to face in a large secondary is a fucking nightmare. The kids used to have to make their own appointments - to be made in class time only, first come first served, when they have a fortnightly timetable which meant either no appointments or one at 3.30pm and two at 7pm.

If you ever got an appointment you then only had a 50% success rate of actually seeing the teacher as although your appointment was at 5pm and it was now 5.20, you'd have to argue the toss with another parent that you'd been waiting next to that teacher since 4.50 and if you didn't see them now then you'd miss your next appointment.

Then put an 8 form year group plus parents and siblings in a small hall and you could never hear anything anyway.

Online is soooooo much better.

My eldest is secondary, I've had 1 successful 5 min zoom since covid.
There system is a load of bollocks. I booked 4 meetings each time, 3 core subjects, math, English & science & 1 other as its a subject he loves & thrives at. Everytime, connection doesn't work, teacher is not there & I'm in a waiting room... then my slots up & I'm told I didn't attend.
Last 1 the mic wasn't working & good on the teacher he rang me in the traditional way of an actual phone call to discuss my sons education. I had to hold up a piece of paper with my number on because in 5 min slots he couldn't look up at reception my contact details.
I could only tell you his science teachers name & that's it!

Online is much better in my opinion - face to face involved standing around in a hall for ages waiting for your appointment while someone chats away far exceeding their time slot - then missing your next slot and having to try and jump back in somehow when Freds parents think its their turn next because they are after Arthurs, who took your slot bcause you were still waiting for the last one!
And all this when there generally isn;t much to day anyway.

Being able to sit at my dining table and have very brief conversations with each teacher within the space of half a hour seemed like absolute genius and why hadn't someone thought of this precovid anyway...

In person at high school will mean taking annual leave and running around from teacher to teacher finding them. I hate them with a passion. Online has been so perfect for us as working parents. The slots cut off after 5 minutes, it all runs to time and we don't need to schlep to the school getting stressed and sweaty. As you say, long live the online parents evening. I don't even need to wear a bra for it

Am also disabled and thought I’d never be able to do secondary parents evening, which worried me greatly as dh would never have obtained let alone retained the information I get. I love online with a passion!

I would like to add that I am also neurodiverse. And being at home, alone, not surrounded by a ton of background noise and the worry of getting to next appointment, and making small talk with other parents and standing around in queues is such a massive massive benefit to me. To be honest, if they go back to in person I am likely to completely avoid them and not go. I have never been to the my children's high school. My husband did the open evening with child1, and child2's was during covid so online.

@parameter - online is similar in that you have to book early and once the slits are finished, they are finished. The point I was making about having a whole day in person (or indeed online) is that there is enough time for you to see all the teachers even if they teach 3 classes in the year.

I LOVE online ones! Far better .... plus a glass of wine out of shot if necessary 😂

I love the idea of the online ones. They don't always work in practice though. My DD is in Year 13. We just had her last parents evening with three teachers. Due to WiFi issues with the school two of the teachers were late joining our slot meaning we got 1 minute with each one. Not really enough time to discuss anything.

I hate online. I much prefer face to face to be able to communicate properly with the teacher. Yes, it’s a faff in a way, and I can see why there is a call for both, but I like to see my DC’s school, and see teachers face to face, including the new head who we didn’t meet for the first year due to covid. I definitely don’t cause meetings to overrun, we’re usually done in 5 minutes. If I have had any concerns, I address them with the teacher at the time rather than save them for parents’ evening.

Hate online- first teacher late so was late to each teacher and every single one commented that it was ok I was a little late!!

Off topic but 5 minutes is not enough time. Especially if you have questions and care about how your child is progressing!

So pointless it's almost not worth it. What exactly do we gain as parents?! Why not write a report send it home and give parents a week to mull over then open up an evening to discuss any concerns

I love them. no having to break your neck to get there after work and parking stress. No more sitting with your eyes boring into the back of the head of some arsehole parent who eats into your time and delays all your other spots. I’m a bit gutted they’ve gone back to f2f at our school.

I care about how my child is progressing, what a strange assumption that because parents are happy with online they don’t care.

we get regular reports on progress and I know how my children are doing, my eldest is sitting his highers next year so I get told current working grade, predicted grades and what can we do to support him. What else do we need?

I've only experienced 1 face to face Secondary School parents evening which was just before the first lockdown. I'm honestly very happy if I never have to experience that again. It was noisy, too hot and no one knew when their time slot actually was as meetings were not on schedule. It was manic.

Online is so much calmer, organised and you do actually get time to speak in your time slot. I'd much rather it stays online but I sadly expect face to face again to be what's offered.

@MichaelFabricantWig

Great for you. You sound like a great parent and are doing a sound job of raising your child.

I am also a good parent and nowhere did I say if you don't like online then you don't care about your kids. That's a wild wild leap from what I actually said.

A bit
Me: " I like apples"
You " so you're saying oranges are the worst fruit and should be banned, how fast you. I love oranges"

I was merely pointing out that most people care about their kids and therefore would probably have questions and follow up questions to ask and 5 minutes is long enough for all of that.

I don't get reports unfortunately, just 5 minutes a year

• dare
• isn't long enough

My experience of in person has varied - when we went to classrooms - and next parents waited outside it wasn't so bad - most teacher walked time runners to the door while talking - though few over ran by a lot.

Most recent just pre covid - with 40+ teachers in one room with more in another area and no prior indication where specific teachers will be so lots of running between - teacher being distracted by other staff, hovering other parents when when it's your time slot - other parenst taking your time slot because you had to get there from another teacher who wasn't running to time or sometime even if you have they just push in- all very stressful.

Initially on-line was very good - much less stressful - however last few times lots of cancelation last minute, tech problems where teachers sound won't work - few just can't connect - and after appointment time that's it - you can't try again. So last time only actually got to talk to a few teachers.

It doesn't help we get once a year reports with two numbers and two words - that's it.

I think when on-line connect well it's better fewer distractions for teachers and us but we've had an increasing number of problems - but when it doesn't it is worse.

I think face to face is good for primary when you only have one teacher to see for a longer appointment, online is better for secondary (both as a teacher and parent) rather than the logistics of loads of appointments in different places.

I'm surprised anyone thinks that they get less time in an online appointment, as face-to-face loads of time would be taken up with searching the hall for the next parent to wave over (sorry, no, not your turn yet, Mrs X is before you even though it is past the time for both your appointments due to Mr Y dragging out his appointment), then the greetings, sitting down, etc, then at the end, the goodbyes, standing up, leaving. There's probably a minute of extra talking time from this, and some parents definitely get longer than they would have done face to face due to keeping to schedule instead of having to try to catch up time from the parents who overrun.

I think the time lost to over runs etc in face to face parents evenings are balanced out by the time lost to poor connections with online ones.